VETERAN Liberal campaigner Tony Greaves emerged today as a new Lord -- but he immediately promised to vote to abolish his own role and replace the upper house with a wholly elected body.

The controversial political figure is among a list of "working members" of the House of Lords released by the Prime Minister's office today. It is not clear what his title will be although Lord Greaves of Pendle has been suggested. He promised to restrict the use of his title as much as possible and be known simply as Tony Greaves.

Mr Greaves, of Winewall, Colne, is one of nine new Liberal Democrat Life Peers appointed on the recommendation of their party leader Charles Kennedy.

"I hope to be known as Lord Greaves and am still thinking about the 'of somewhere' bit of the title," he said. "Colne and Pendle are the frontrunners at the moment."

As soon as that is finalised he will take his seat in the House of Lords and initially spend two or three days a week in the chamber.

He said: "I shall, as far as possible, restrict the use of my title to House of Lords business. It does seem that with the partial reform of the Lords, a lot of the pomp and flummery is slowly dying away which must be a good thing."

The list of "working members" is part of reforms which recently saw the departure of most of the hereditary peers.

Mr Greaves said he would vote "on every possible occasion" to abolish himself and all the other "appointed quango peers" as well as the remaining hereditary peers. "I completely support the Liberal Democrat view that the Lords should be fully elected in a democratic way by proportional representation," he said.

"I hope I will be in time to vote for my own abolition and then stand for election to an upper house fit to do its important job in the 21st century."

Mr Greaves admitted though that his peerage was probably "a life sentence" with no major reform of how the Lords is constituted on the horizon.

Mr Greaves was born in Bradford, educated at Oxford and Manchester universities, and has lived in Pendle since 1969 when he took up a teaching post at Colne Grammar School.

He was a town, borough and county councillor between 1971 and 1998 and at present works as assistant to North West LibDem MEP Chris Davies.

His wife Heather, also a former long-serving Pendle councillor, is a lecturer at Nelson and Colne College. The couple have two daughters, Victoria and Helen.

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